The reservation of jobs in the private sector will tantamount to putting the clock back on economic reforms and not even political parties are ready for a legislation making employment of SCs and STs binding on India Inc, industry body Ficci said.

"The minute you provide reservation on a caste, creed or religion basis, it will be incompatible to global competitive HR policy," secretary general of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Amit Mitra told PTI.

Asked to comment on the demand for a legislation on job quota for SCs/STs from political leaders like Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan, Mitra said, "I am very doubtful whether any politician is yet ready to present a draft bill."

While it would be up to the Indian industry to respond if a draft bill is presented in this Lok Sabha or after the elections, the job quota in the private sector would mean reversing the clock to the 'licence-permit-quota raj' days, the Ficci secretary general said.

The UPA government had asked the Indian industry to come up with proposals on affirmative actions for the economically and socially backward classes. While the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Assocham had set up the J J Irani joint task force on the issue, Ficci stayed away.

Mitra said the term 'affirmative action' was not understood properly. "Affirmative action does not say that you take a draftsman to do an engineer's job," he said adding the reservation-based human resource polices were not in sync with the Indian industry going global.